Living Well

The beginning of the year is the time of resolutions.  We know there are things that ought to change.  So what does living well mean? One clue is right in the wording:

Go to the well. 

We are invited to stay close and drink deeply.  Like the woman who first discovered that answer (the account can be read in John 4), listen closely to what He says even if He isn’t answering the question you asked.  You might think He isn’t interested in what you’d like to talk about, but trust Him to bring the most important things to the table and stay with Him as He speaks.  He sees you most clearly and easily gets to the heart of the matter, not in a scolding way, but to offer you something better.   It is we who want to dodge the truth and end up parched when the deep and refreshing waters are within reach. 

We first must understand that as a human we can converse with the God of creation who is wildly interested in engaging with us.  There are numerous reasons why many shun the possibility.  Apparently we have a damaged hardwire that tells us yet today that “a Samaritan” and “a Jew” would never interact.   And yet here we are, invited into that lavish reality.   We don’t have to continually ask God to come close.  Christmas was the clear message that He is.  He wasn’t put off by our straw-and-dung situations, He came right into them.  Still does.  Pentecost put the seal any question of His willingness to be continually with us..  He’s done His part to be here.  Now it’s our time to run the race, to pick up the baton and to actually spend time with Him, learning, listening, loving, lingering.  We are afraid of the marathon, but we will be amazed at the ground we will cover, the journey we will live when we look back later, having gone just one good step at a time, willing to follow.

As with the woman He was speaking with that distant day, the conversation will take twists and turns for us.  How could it be otherwise?  Do we think we won’t be intimidated sometimes in the presence of the One who spoke stars into being when He sits down in our rooms and speaks something to us?  But we don’t be afraid of His motives.  No one has ever been more for our well-being.  Come.  Be well.  The waters to be discovered are the cool ones for your weariness, the bubbling springs of unseen provision, the babbling ones that delight you in restful places, the ocean wide ones that will take you on adventures beyond your wildest dreams.  But it all starts at the well, where you and truth meet.